SFPC supports teachers on strike across the nation

November 30, 2022

SFPC supports all teachers on strike across the nation. We want to foreground solidarity with our NYC movements at the UAW 7902 union at The New School (TNS) and New York University (NYU). Learn more about how you can support the strike by following them and their demands in addition to UAW 2865 and others at the University of California campuses.

Many SFPC teachers and staff are active or inactive members of UAW7902. All current teachers and staff are participating in or supporting a full work stoppage at TNS. Read directly from them in anonymized testimonials below:

“I fully support all teachers and students on strike. TNS is a dishearteningly blatant example of exploitation in academia.”

“Lack of adequate and fair pay for adjunct professors is the main reason why I've refused to continue teaching at TNS and pursue fairer paying jobs. The work of adjunct professors is thankless, especially for async or blended classes. While I'm not currently teaching this year, I fully support all teachers and students on strike.”

“Teachers are the foundation of TNS (and all schools). The learning community as it stands would be impossible without them and it's vital to treat them that way! Maintaining over 80% of staff as underpaid and underinsured with no path towards job security is completely out of alignment with both the importance of their work and the climate we're living in that demands increased pay and good healthcare. I stand with UAW7902 and all teachers demanding livable working conditions.”

“I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley and (as a member of the Newsguild 31003) am fully in support of the UC wide-strike (across 10 campuses!! UAW 2865, UAW 5810, and ACT-UAW-7902). Teachers are not a luxury. Teaching is not a luxury. Education is not a luxury. Teachers deserve respect and they/we deserve a wage that allows them to be secure and that values the tangible and intangible work that they do in holding together the cracks of our social systems, in challenging and rebuilding our flawed foundations, and orienting us towards better futures. C'mon.”

“The adjunct pay at TNS was extremely low ($4200 when I taught there several years ago) and Parsons School of Design and Technology had a really gross 'revolving door' culture for adjuncts where students would graduate, then teach there for a year or two while they looked for a better job, and then get replaced by a new alum. Very little support for teachers and the labor of adjuncts made me feel very undervalued, which is why I left.”

“I support all striking university workers everywhere, including striking staff, teachers, and students. My specific support for the TNS strike comes from my personal relationships with former and current TNS teachers and students, and from my belief that university workers fighting for their dignity and security at TNS helps university workers everywhere.”